2011 France to Australia Camper Trip

My friend and I are going to drive a homemade camper from the south of france to the south of australia going throw eastern europe, asia. About 20,000 Km of dusty, muddy, f*cked up road to australia. This will be a 1 to 2 year trip.

We only have the normal car driving licence which can drive a car up to 3500Kg with a 750kg max trailer.So were looking for a good 4x4 offroad truck. Something with good wheels for the possible bumpy roads.Then we are going to build a camper bloc at the back to live in. Two beds, kitchen, living room bathroom.

We want to travel at our own time (respecting legal duration stay) from country to country. Find nice spots in each country to camp and use our bikes to visit the country or the surroundings.

We are going to try to exploit world technologie for energie sources. Use natures wind, sun, water to produce our electricity for our cameras, lighting, ...

For money, we're expecting to use about 15 euros per day for food. So 450 for 30 days, 5400euro for 12 months, 10 800euros for two years. Now the tricky part is that food is worth less in different countrys, so we are using our personnal french living value to calculate. We don't expect to buy expensive food.The truck will be within 1000 and 6000euros. We need to add the price for petrole for the truck.

Another big problem is how are we going to fill up the water tank for the truck. In some countrys water mite not be clean to drink. If someone has an idea for that.

So here is a general overview of the trip.If people are thinking of doing the same thing, we would be pleased if you come and joing. Tribe-like

Danoussh

Ps: Please fell free to comment, ask questions or even answer some of mine!!

This truck is excellent for offroad type tracks. So this truck apparently sucks up to 20 litters per 100km. Which an good amount already, but considering the fact that we won't problably ever have problems getting around, plus this truc has PTO.

Now in france i managed to find it for about 3000 to 6000 euro. They generally are trucks for truck permits, but sometimes we can find them under light vehicule which meens that a normal permit can drive them. But we will still have to get the truck permit (more than 3,500 Kg cars) because after installing the camper part, the truck will probably wheigh more than 3.5 tonnes.

-[FR] A approfondir mais aux alentours de 5000 euro pour l'achat du camion.-[EN] To be worked out, but 5000 euro for the truck without camper part.

- prix sans amenagement : 5000 eur

Amenagement/Camper transformation :--------------------------------------------------[This is how much we are going to invest to transform this truck into camper truck, we are going to recover from scrap yards mostly]

So if we save 500 euro per month, living off a 1000 euro minimum wage (French Mininum wage). Of course we live at our parents house luckly. But the end of 2011 we should have enough money to buy the truck and start working on it.

So please if someone has any question, or advice, you are most welcome. Even if it seem as a stupid question.

Oh - this looks crazy, but so fantastic. I've done a lot of driving abroad over all 5 continents and find your route fascinating.How are you going about visas through the countries that you need them for - and why 1 to 2 years? It seems a long time for 20,000kms. I mean I'm not saying you can do it in a lot less time, you know that obviously -but where are you planning to stop for a long time en-route?As simple as it may sound, to answer your query about the water situation, I would suggest either purification tablets or - as you have a nice big vehicle, lots of bottles of the stuff from local stores. The further east you go, the cheaper it will be. In parts of Eastern Europe you will find 5 litre bottles of purified water at about 50p a unit. Yes, it might work out a little expensive, but well worth it to stop getting the jippies when way out in the sticks. Plus, when you have a limited amount of water and it's not free flowing from a tap, it's surprising how you can economise with it - and how far it will go.Food wise, I'd suggest stocking up with tins of what you like, buying them on the journey. Again, in Eastern Europe you can get a cupboard full of food that's to your liking for around €25. Plus if it's in tins, there's no worry of sell by/best before problems.Hope it comes together well.

How are you going about visas through the countries that you need them for - and why 1 to 2 years? It seems a long time for 20,000kms. I mean I'm not saying you can do it in a lot less time, you know that obviously -but where are you planning to stop for a long time en-route?

Ok so i made my self a basic list of courtries we are most likely to travel throw. In some countries we will only stay maximum 24h, 48h, 36h as we will travel across them to next country. For others we will stay for longer durations. From 1 week to 5 weeks or more depending on countrys' size and traveling distance.Of course this hasn't been discusted yet in detail, so this list may be different later on.

There are 30 countries in the list excluding islands when traveling from Asia to Australia. 365 days devided by 30 countries equals about 12 days. So if we stay 12 days in each country we can visit 30 countries in a year.

So by staying a fews days in some countrys, we can stay longer in others, especially those big countries.

List of coutries most likely to travel throw:France (Departure, straight to italy within afternoon)

Italy

switzerland

Germany

Belguim

Nederlands

Germany

Czech Rep

Austria

Crotia

Sébia

Greece

Bulgaria

Hungary

Romania

Moldava

Ykpaiha

Russia

Kazakhstan

Mongolia

China (The Great Wall of China)

Nepal

Bangladesh

Myanmar

Laos

vietnam

Cambodia

Thailand

Malaysia

From here it will be by boat

No destination selected yet

Australia

To answer Flyingbob, We most likely going to stay no more than 30 days for most countries. 30 day Visas shouldn't be a probleme in any of them. (I personnally have an Australian passport). All visas will be obtained before we leave, as countries mite have delay of a few months to obtain visa.

We finaly decided to plan this trip of 1 year only for estimastion reasons. I suppose we can always longer if we have days left on our visas.

Water

Quoting flyingbob

As simple as it may sound, to answer your query about the water situation, I would suggest either purification tablets or - as you have a nice big vehicle, lots of bottles of the stuff from local stores. The further east you go, the cheaper it will be. In parts of Eastern Europe you will find 5 litre bottles of purified water at about 50p a unit. Yes, it might work out a little expensive, but well worth it to stop getting the jippies when way out in the sticks. Plus, when you have a limited amount of water and it's not free flowing from a tap, it's surprising how you can economise with it - and how far it will go.

We were thinking of using a big water tank and use a electrical pump to use from sink tap.So the question is how are we going to get clean water in the tank and keep it that way?

Maybe could we fill it up with any clean source of water, keep it well sealed and use those purification tablets you cited Flyingbob.

Why not install a sort of passif purification system, like a pipe that has specific sand to clean the water. I have seen this type of thing in house's in france.

I suppose a wast tank should be installed too. This shouldn't be a problem.

Food

Quoting flyingbob

Food wise, I'd suggest stocking up with tins of what you like, buying them on the journey. Again, in Eastern Europe you can get a cupboard full of food that's to your liking for around €25. Plus if it's in tins, there's no worry of sell by/best before problems.

We are going to install a gaz cooking stove. So we will be able to eat meat or fish from local areas. Cans are a great idea too, also things like pasta.I also thinking of bying loads of fruits and vegdtabals from local areas.

At the beginning we decided to save up money to spend 10 euros per days which would be a total of 3650 euros for a year.Considering the fact that we can get big quantity of food like pasta quite cheap. I personnaly think this amount is enough. Considering the fact that Flyingbob said it got cheaper as we go east.

Electrical :At the moment we are wondering about the electricity in the truck. Were can we get electricity from.But what are going to use this electricity for?

Devices------------

Computers ( 2 laptops )

We mite also use wifi antenna that needs 500mA.

Photography camera ( 1 )

Mobile Phones ( 2 )

Lighting------------

LED lights (inside and outside)

Other----------

Electrical Pump

So there isn't much. A solar panel or two should already be enough. We also have the motor it self to power up the cigar lighters.By using good boat batteries we be able to store the electricity. To make sure we have another electrical source, will see if we can get a gas/petrol electrical generator.